July 13, 2008

[C]omedian Bernie Mac after an appearance at an Obama fundraiser last night. The comic performed a profanity-laced set at the function which ended with hecklers telling him to get off the stage after a joke that some deemed particularly offensive to women. Obama joked about the fundraiser being a “family affair” when he followed Mac on stage, but the campaign got more serious about criticizing the comedian afterwards:

Toward the end of a 10-minute standup routine at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in downtown Chicago, the 50-year-old star of “The Bernie Mac Show” joked about menopause, sexual infidelity and promiscuity, and used occasional crude language.

“My little nephew came to me and he said, ‘Uncle, what’s the difference between a hypothetical question and a realistic question?’” Mac said. “I said, I don’t know, but I said, ‘Go upstairs and ask your mother if she’d make love to the mailman for $50,000.’”

As the joke continued, the punchline evoked an angry response from at least one person in the audience, who said it was offensive to women.

How did it get more offensive? The Chicago Tribune gives a little more detail:

He promised to help Obama and ended his irreverent riff with a joke involving the women in the families and living with two “hoes.”

That summary comes from Ed Morrissey, who calls attention to the offense to women that Obama's "family affair" scolding misses. To say, this is a "family affair" implies that we could talk like this in an adults-only environment — as if there's no difference between sex and sexism. Ed notes that it's particularly bad when Obama needs to win over Hillary-supporters.

Well, when you think of the ribald commentary that was perfectly acceptable in Rev. Wright's sermons ("Bill doing the dirty with Monica" or something like that), I guess Obama has a fairly generous definition of what's acceptable for all ages to hear until there is public pushback.

"We can't afford to be divided by race. We can't afford to be divided by region or by class and we can't afford to be divided by gender, which by the way, that means, Bernie, you've got to clean up your act next time," Obama said. "This is a family affair. By the way, I'm just messing with you, man."

Isn't that kind of weaselly? He gets up there to reprove the man, then gets cold feet at the end and backpedals -- "I'm just messing with you?" What is that?

Know it is the joke? No. Pretty sure it is, though, looking at a few of the parts you quoted.

"My little nephew came to me and he said, 'Uncle, what's the difference between a hypothetical question and a realistic question?'" Mac said. "I said, I don't know, but I said, 'Go upstairs and ask your mother if she'd make love to the mailman for $50,000.'"...

"He promised to help Obama and ended his irreverent riff with a joke involving the women in the families and living with two “hoes.”"

So rather than theory and reality, he used hypothetical and reality. But I would bet a good amount of money that the joke was the one I am thinking of.

The middle lines of the joke would be, 'the nephew came back and told the uncle, she said for $50,000, she would absolutely make love to the mailmain. So the uncle tells him to go and ask his female cousin if she would make love to the football coach. The nephew went, and on return told his uncle that she said she'd definitely do it for $50,000. The uncle said, that's the difference between hypothetical and reality. Hypothetically, we have..."

etc etc etc.

Given the setup line, and the fact the punchline is about having two hoes in the house, I would be Andrew Sullivan gob-smacked if it was a different joke.

The question is which part is weaselly. Did he find the bit funny but feel the need to say a part to appease those who were offended, or did was he offended and then feel a need to appease Bernie Mac.

Obama seems continually surprised when people act according to their established character.

At the same time, it's clear there are a lot of people who support him who can't quite let go of the spotlight and have common sense when supporting him. I don't think that is at all Obama's fault. He should expect people to have decorum at such things. He's not the cultural nanny.

The other day I come home from work and the neighbor lady tells me she sees strange men going in and out of my house all day long. I tell her that’s impossible, my wife’s never given me so much as a dollar.

I'm really disappointed in his schtick, which I would've forgiven him if it were a character in a film (his characters usually poke fun at quirky behaviour, like the married guy who thinks his wife is cheating on him, in How to be A Player or Officer Self Hatred, in the Wayans Bros. classic, Don't Drink Juice in the Hood...).

But I'm not sure Obama realises just how corrosive and universal inappropriate public behaviour runs in the circles who favour him.

It's like they have dealt with "feelings" so long, after a generation of no one telling them "no" and "you can't say that" because to do so is to be judgemental or in the case of the black community, racist.

I tried to find 'proof' of it being Diceman's, but to no avail. That's the way I remember it though; and I know for certain it was told in certain bars back in the early 90s by a buddy of mine, done completely in Dice's style.

The only parts of this Obama/Mac story that I find even remotely interesting are that B-Mac is telling old jokes as if they were his own, and yet another example of the Obama two-step.

What's the Obama two-step? Glad you asked. He says something that would be enticing to conservative voters (such as saying that BMac's routine was unwholesome) and then immediately afterwards pulling back (no man, just kidding ya).

No wonder Bill Clinton doesn't seem to like the guy. He's slicker than ol' Slick Willie. That's got to hurt the old guy's ego.

And Althouse- I fail to see how this is comparable to Imus at all. Yeah, both used the term 'hoes'. But Imus was denigrating specific women of athletic achievement by attacking their appearance, and not just by likening them to hoes but also calling them nappy-headed.

BMac is just telling a joke about two hypothetical women who admitted they would sleep with someone for a lot of money.

I don't think the situations are similar, and neither should the response to them be.

B-Mac should get nailed for passing off others' jokes as his own, and Obama for being a pussy, but beyond that the whole thing is worthy of a big yawn.

"All Imus did wrong was turn into an old queen about it, which he still is today"

Couldn't disagree more. They were basketball players. And cutting down on their hairstyles on the court is pretty damned irrelevant and demeaning. Did he expect them to be ready for Glamour Shots and not sweating?

Couldn't disagree more. They were basketball players. And cutting down on their hairstyles on the court is pretty damned irrelevant and demeaning. Did he expect them to be ready for Glamour Shots and not sweating?

Not buying it. If he wanted to call them unsportsmanlike, he could have done just that. If he wanted to be more colorful, he could have called them thugs, or Denis Rodman wanna-bes who don't have to cross-dress.

Not buying it. If he wanted to call them unsportsmanlike, he could have done just that.

Figures of speech are so confusing! It's amazing that anybody uses them

I was thinking of Imus's ``Tom is dead'' phone call today, and wondering why I liked it so much. I think it's that he got the performance he wanted out of the lady, completely appropriate to a certain kind of scold.

Well it is always funny when an old white woman tries to use the latest black slang. That's all the Imus was trying to do. He is after all an old white woman. And that was the latest slang, from about 1992.